What Brings It All Together
by Silverflare07
Summary: The rumors had started in their first year of high school. .Set in AF. .Ben/Gwen.


Be prepared for horrible OoCness...seriously. Watch Out.

A special thanks to my beta and BFF Chibi! Because she runs around BJ's with me acting like Ben and Gwen and making comments that Ben and Gwen probably shouldn't make (but we all totally want them too anyways). You deserve it girl! Go you!

This is set sometime during Alien Force, after _Maxed Out_. And, um...I haven't seen many episodes of Alien Force yet so I hope I got their older personalities right, cause knowing me...I probably didn't. Also, I totally took liberty to make up a moment in _What Little Girls Are Made Of_.

oOoOo

The rumors had started in their first year of high school.

Even though Ben had taken off the Omnitrix after the final battle with Vilgax, neither he nor Gwen made many close friends. Both had realized that the threat of the Omnitrix wasn't gone and hadn't wanted to drag anyone into anything if trouble ever happened to come their way. And Grandpa Max had _requested_ that neither of them should talk about that summer they were away with anyone other than their parents, and that was limited. They were both friendly enough with everyone, had friends that they hung out with at school, but it wasn't the same. With such a huge secret and no one to tell it too, they'd turned to each other.

Gwen had been surprised to learn that not only had she achieved the ability to tolerate her cousin, she'd also found a best friend.

It was hard to go through what they went through and _not_ become close, Gwen knew, but no one else could ever understand that because of the secrecy. She'd done everything from save his life (multiple times) to teaching him how to dance. (How embarrassing it had been to be caught by their grandfather?)

Their closeness had set a few people off, but no one ever confronted them about it and the only people Gwen ever heard whispering were people who didn't do anything worthwhile with their time anyways. It was always easy to ignore and she was pretty sure that Ben didn't have the slightest inkling of what people occasionally whispered when gossip was sparse. So Gwen kept her head high and went about her life as if she hadn't heard a thing.

It was, after all, just gossip.

oOo

"_Hey." Gwen looked up from her locker to see Ben standing there, looking unusually grave._

"_Hi." She shut her locker and did her best to fight the feeling of dread that was surfacing in her stomach. "What's wrong?"_

_Ben looked downcast, surprising her by grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze. She felt the eyes of her classmates on her but she understood the gesture for what it was. _

_Comfort. Something was very, very wrong._

"_Ben...what's going on?" She hated how frightened she sounded, but she didn't like the look in Ben's eyes at all when he finally met her gaze._

"_It's Grandpa."_

_Her eyes widened. "What? What's wrong? Is he okay?"_

_Ben shook his head. "I don't know. He's gone."_

"_Gone?! What's that supposed to mean?"_

_Ben sighed. "It means he's gone. No one has seen any sign of him for days. They want us to go to the office and wait for our parents."_

_Gwen tensed. "You don't think this has anything to do with..."_

"_The Plumbers?" Ben finished. "I've got a funny feeling it does."_

"_He's fine though, right? I mean Grandpa's ridiculously tough."_

_Ben shook his head. "I don't know, but..." he trailed off and looked at his bare left wrist. _

_Gwen shook her head, knowing exactly what her cousin was thinking about. She moved towards him in one swift motion, circling her arms around his neck and holding on tightly. He accepted the gesture much more gracefully than the younger Ben ever would have (or ever had, to be honest) and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, returning the comfort as best he could._

_Gwen stood there, in an embrace that probably shouldn't be shared between cousins, and was not oblivious to the stares and the whispers. But she didn't care._

_Comforting Ben, and being comforted by Ben, were much more important._

oOo

The rumors had gotten a little worse after that. Even Ben hadn't been able to disregard them completely. He'd shrugged it off easily though. "Stupid stares and stupid whispers from even stupider people." So she'd done the same.

When the news had spread that their grandfather had disappeared right around the time of "the hug" (it was a blonde bubblegum cheerleader that had dubbed it that), the whispers had gotten so quiet that they could hardly be heard. It didn't squash them outright, but she doubted they could ever be completely squashed until the kids in her high school got their own lives to worry about.

Then Ben had put the Omnitrix back on and Gwen had realized that the simple life they sort of settled into was about to be uprooted very quickly. They'd joined up with their once enemy, now kind of ally, Kevin Levin and had started to build up the team that their grandpa had told them they should in his one transmission sent to them.

Things had gotten even more complicated when they had met their grandmother, who was apparently an alien (very few things about their grandfather surprised Gwen anymore though) and it was from her that Gwen had inherited her "magic" powers.

And for the first time since learning about the wonderful guy her cousin could be, she was forced with the possibility of not seeing him for a very long time. It had been surprising, how badly her heart had ached at the thought of not seeing her best friend for, what might very well have been, the rest of her life.

It wasn't as surprising as what she learned from her grandmother...

oOo

"_You can't even begin to imagine the kind of things I'll be able to teach you."_

_Gwen looked down at the ground, unsure of exactly what she was feeling. "It all sounds really cool, Grandma. But what about my life here? What about my family? My cousin? Who's going to look after Ben?" She chuckled softly and smiled fondly. "He can be so hopeless sometimes."_

_Verdona smiled at her granddaughter. "That's not a problem."_

_Gwen looked up in confusion. "What?"_

"_My species doesn't have any such thing as familial blood ties like humans do. When you fully embraced your powers you lost all relation constraints as well."_

_Gwen's eyes widened in shock. "You-You mean..."_

_Verdona chuckled at the look on her granddaughter's face. "You are no more related to Ben then you are to that 'shoot first, question second' boy you travel with."_

_Gwen almost laughed at her grandmother's description of Kevin; it was fairly accurate. _

"_So, really, you've got nothing tying you here."_

_Gwen's face fell and she turned to look where Ben and her parents were standing in the distance. "Yeah..."_

oOo

She had never told anyone what her grandmother had shared with her. Not even Ben. She wasn't exactly sure how to tell them, to be honest.

And, of course, things came boiling over one night. She knew they eventually would.

oOo

_Gwen sighed and tried to snuggle deeper into her couch. She could hear the thunder in the distance and knew that a storm was fast approaching. It was one of the few nights that the trio had returned home and Gwen wanted to relax as best as she could. _

_A knock on the door brought Gwen out of her daydreams. She looked at the clock and rose in surprise, making her way to the front door. Who would be knocking at ten o'clock at night? Her parents were both out of town for the weekend visiting relatives, Ben was on a date with Julie, and Kevin was glued to his car, making repairs. _

_Her fist began to glow and she quickly hid it behind her back just in case who ever was visiting wasn't friendly. Cautiously, she opened the door and was surprised to see a dejected looking Ben standing on her stoop._

"_Ben?" She quickly dispelled her magic._

"_Hey." _

_She ushered him in. "Um...not that this isn't a lovely surprise but aren't you supposed to be on a date?"_

_Ben sighed. "Ruined. By some stupid alien."_

_Gwen placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."_

_Ben smiled slightly. "We're never going to be able to have a normal relationship with anyone are we?"_

"_Honestly?" Ben nodded. "It's kind of harsh."_

_Ben smiled again. "That's never stopped you before."_

_Gwen smiled too, just for a moment, before it fell away and she gave her honest opinion. "No. None of us really will. It's just too...dangerous."_

_Ben took it well; he just smiled and shrugged. "I guess that's what happens when you're the hero."_

_Thunder clapped and Gwen could hear the sound of the rain as it began to fall. Something inside her snapped and the words had left her mouth before she could stop them._

"_I'm a pretty selfish person then."_

_Gwen knew Ben was both and shocked and intrigued by what she'd said. She very rarely talked about herself like that; she'd always thought there was enough negative thinking as it was. _

"_Huh? What do you mean?" Ben had every right to look as confused as he was._

_Gwen looked down. "Some days I just wish that I could be normal." She could sense his eyes widening in shock at her statement. "Well...not normal exactly. How normal can you be when you-"_

_Thunder clapped again, closer this time, and Gwen seemed to realize what she was about to say. "Forget it."_

_She brushed past him and made her way towards the stairs. "I'm tired...I think I'll just go to bed."_

_Ben's voice stopped her. "When you what?"_

_She turned to face him and knew that she wasn't going to get away without giving him some kind of answer. "I just wish that sometimes..." She trailed off. What good would it do to tell him? And so she lost her breath again._

"_Gwen!" Ben grabbed her shoulders, turning her to face him. "It's just that," when she refused to meet his gaze, he continued, "It's just that sometimes you wish you're biggest secret was that you're in love with your cousin. . . ?"_

_Thunder clapped once more, right over the house, and Gwen sunk to her knees. Ben followed right behind her, kneeling before his cousin and waiting for her to say something. "How-how did you know?" She finally looked up, ready to face her fate._

_Lightening flashed and illuminated her Ben's face. There was no trace of disgust or anger, just patience, understanding, and something else._

_He pressed his forehead against her's. "Because some days...I wish for the exact same thing."_

_Gwen gasped, looking up to meet Ben's gaze and gentle smile. "Really?"_

_Ben nodded and grasped her upper arms gently. "Yeah." Then he leaned in and kissed her softly._

_When they pulled away all Gwen could do was smile at the boy before her. He laughed softly. "We're pretty messed up, huh?"_

_Gwen smiled gently. "Well grandpa always said he wanted us to be closer."_

_Ben grinned back. "Then we'll have to be sure to tell him when we find him."_

oOo

They had never told anyone about that night, or any of the other nights that had followed. Both of them had agreed to keep it a secret until they'd finished gathering their team and the final battle was over. Both wanted to wait and tell their grandfather first because they knew that Grandpa Max would smile and accept them before explanations about alien heritage. In fact, he'd probably smile and tell them he'd seen it coming all along. And Gwen wanted to wait to tell Kevin until she was sure that he didn't like her anymore (there really wasn't any point in being cruel).

Ben passed by her in the hall, talking to some kid from on of his classes. He caught her eye and smiled, just small enough so that no one else would catch it.

They'd let the rumors stay rumors...

Until they were ready to tell the truth.

oOo

I know by now you're all ready to turn into XLR8 in order to get away from the horrible OoCness (I did warn you in the beginning). But if by some chance you've managed to make it this far down then leave a review! I've got a small pile of other Ben/Gwen fic ideas that I'd like to write, but I need to know if you guys want to read 'em!

R&R!


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